• JUPITER STATIONS RETROGRADE ON 7TH JANUARY 2016

  • A cartoon illustration of Zeus with a thunderbolt.

    Jupiter, or Zeus as the ancient Greeks knew him, was the King of the Olympian gods. He was omniscient; knowing and seeing everything as well as dispensing good and evil not only in the Heavens but also among the mortals on the Earth. Although married to a very jealous spouse (Hera) he managed nevertheless to have many extra-marital affairs with goddesses and mortals alike thus producing an incredible number of children who he always left to be raised by others.

    So we associate Jupiter with growth, expansion and luck which, if exaggerated, can also lead to greed and dissatisfaction in some cases, making us believe that the grass is greener elsewhere and so prompting us to explore further.

    Jupiter is now transiting the sign of Virgo which tends towards modesty, loves serving others but inclines to overthinking and worrying, far too attentive to the small details to see the big picture, especially where health and diet and day-to-day routine are concerned.

    On the 7th of January Jupiter begins his yearly, four-month, retrograde cycle at 23°14’ Virgo and he will backtrack until he reaches 13°15’ of the same sign.

    Since Jupiter is the ruler of the traditional 9th (Sagittarius) and the 12th houses (Pisces which he co-rules with the modern ruler Neptune), the axes involved in the traditional zodiac are between the 9-3rd and the 12-6th houses. The 9-3rd axis highlights our awareness of the process of integration and understanding of our ideas and thoughts (3rd) in relationship to their usefulness in our worldly philosophy (9th) and the 12-6th axis wants our soul (12th) to recognize our body (6th) as a vehicle.

    When Jupiter goes retrograde we have the opportunity to turn within to be better able to distinguish which of our talents need to be developed so that we might contribute to the well-being of our similars on a larger scale by putting these talents to use once the retrograde cycle is over and the planet once again begins its forward motion.

    During the retrograde cycle you should strive to become aware of any tendency to be “carried away” by too much optimism and/or impossible dreams and thus forget to pay attention to the smaller, but no less important, details that the sign of Virgo is so fussy about.

    Which house(s) is Jupiter now transiting in your natal chart?